Monday, November 30, 2009

About a Rose

Way back when I was living in Boston and working for starvation wages at a rather grim college for musicians, I had a secret dream. Well, I had two; but the first involved feeding the president, provost and faculty of the grim college for musicians into a wood chipper, so I kept it quiet.

The second was to be a host on The Victory Garden. Didn't happen. It's tough to land a job demonstrating the proper way to espalier an apple tree when you've never actually tended any plant that wouldn't fit in a window box.*

All of my adult life, you see, I've been a city apartment dweller with–at best–a south-facing windowsill deep enough for a couple of African violets. So, although I yearned for a bit of earth, I was stuck with Gertrude Jekyll,The Victory Garden, and digging compulsively in my window box with a very tiny spade. Did you know that too much loving care can actually kill an African violet?

Since African violets are supposed to be the one thing still blooming after a nuclear holocaust, when I got my hands on a rose bush I figured the sucker was toast.

Mind you, I'm talking about one tough mofo of a rose. It grows on this property in Chicago's Wrigleyville neighborhood–so-called because of its proximity to the famous Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

This rose sprouted voluntarily in a bed adjacent to the sidewalk, and there survived at least 25 brutal Chicago winters without a lick of attention. It is also an easy target for drunken Cubs fans who stop to pee on it as they stumble away from yet another ignominious defeat. A rose that can handle being pissed on every time the Cubs lose is a rose that wants to live.

When I took control of the flower bed, the rose was alive, but only just. It had one large dead and two small living stems, the tallest being six inches high. Nobody knew what color it was, since nobody in the building could remember it blooming. One year it achieved a bud, which promptly turned black and fell off. If it were a person, this rose would have spent every day in a dark bedroom listening to emo and writing Twilight slash fiction.

After doing a little soil preparation, I moved the whole plant from the shady corner to a sunnier spot on the other side of the bed. I fed it. I watered it. I encouraged it to do its own thing, but told it I was there if it needed me.

And three months later, look what happened.

Just a small bloom, yes; but it burst forth with panache and lasted an entire day until a passing hurricane lopped it off at the neck. So I christened it Marie Stuart.

Not long after, Marie managed another bloom. By then it was nearly September, and in Chicago's climate after September 1st all bets are off as to what the weather might do. As I watered the bed, I found myself humming a favorite song, John Stevenson's "The Last Rose of Summer."

If you were assembling an album to be titled Queen Victoria's Greatest Hits, "The Last Rose of Summer" would jockey for top billing with "Home, Sweet Home" and "The Lost Chord." The lyric–actually a poem by the Irishman Thomas Moore–is a real heart-tugger.

In the first stanza, we note the eponymous blossom, looking lovely but lonely:

'Tis the last rose of summerLeft blooming alone;All her lovely companionsAre faded and gone;No flower of her kindred,No rosebud is nigh,To reflect back her blushes,To give sigh for sigh.

Sniff. But wait, it gets better. This is a Victorian poem, remember? And what's a Victorian poem without a little premature death?

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!To pine on the stem;Since the lovely are sleeping,Go, sleep thou with them.Thus kindly I scatter,Thy leaves o'er the bed,Where thy mates of the gardenLie scentless and dead.

In case you're made of stone, Moore throws in one more stanza that ponders the futility of life and the cold, cold solace of the grave.

Seriously, it's really a sweet, simple little piece. These days it's more or less the property of schlockmeisters like Charlotte Church and André Rieu. But I'll never forget a performance I heard once in the mid-1990s on World AIDS Day: nothing but a tenor and a piano. The singer, the pianist and about half the men in the audience had watched all or most of their beautiful friends die. In that room, in that context, it was devastating.

Of course, Mother Nature doesn't give two hoots about poetic justice. Well into fall, the dang rose sent up two new shoots and each produced a bud, which meant Exhibit A was at best The Penultimate Rose of Summer. Who's going to set that to music? Nobody, that's who.

When the late arrivals hadn't opened by the time I left for England, I figured frost would get them. Nope. They just got bigger and fatter and then, on Thanksgiving Day: pop.

As dear Edmund Waller wrote, "Go, lovely rose! Dude! Right on!"

*Also, I was the wrong color. Everybody on The Victory Garden was white, in that purebred luminescent way that only old-style Bostonians can be white. The show's sole nod to ethnic diversity, as I recall, was a presenter whose last name was Shimizu, and even she was blonde.

Ahh. You see, I kill African Violets, I have a tremendous green thumb, and I kill African Violets. Actually, I think it might be worse. I think they might commit suicide, as soon as they realize they are in my presence.

Beautiful rose (although, this Norther woman cannot fathom a rose blooming on the prairie at the end of November)

Imagine how cheery it is to share your birthday with World AIDS Day. And to live in Michigan, with a 97.5% chance of blizzard on the same. But today was beautiful, and maybe we won't always need to have an AIDS awareness day. Beautiful rose.

my first garden was 80 sq ft in front of the park slope brownstone where i lived on the third floor. schlepped everything up and down the stairs to work in the garden - the first year i had 5 roses and then added five more the next year - i still miss my gorgeous new dawn (it was five when i bought it and grew about 20 ft each year so that i had to keep pruning it).

my current garden is the backyard of my rental apt (fourplex building) its my secret garden (see my garden blog for the whole story sogalitno.typepad.com) created from rubbish and wilderness.

landlord thinks i am crazy but you and other gardeners know that, well, maybe we are... but a special kind of crazy.

Lovely post. We've just bought a new rose; there's nothing quite like watching those buds open. We have several little ones and now one standard one in a small bed.

::shameless namedrop:: When she's in Sydney (not often these days) Dame Joan lives in an apartment below my partner Sandra's cousin Pam. So Pam and her family get to hear Dame J. rehearsing and practising every day. I guess having her for a neighbour might make up for not having a garden, just a bit.

I used to garden for a living - it's not what its cracked up to be unless you love an aching back and repeated bouts of lymes disease! I did get to rub knuckles with some stars though, who had a particular fondness for perennial gardens, albeit the weekend variety.As far as I'm concerned - you have more star power than most (and I've met you - in Rhinebeck at your book signing!). As always, your blog inspires and brightens my day! MORE!

Ah. Gertrude is an old school rose-with heart. I fell into 'rosing' 10 years ago, when I was in a particularly sad situation. I fussed over the plants. They were a lot of work. And then moles wrecked the rosebeds.

Now, I get easy plants, like Mutablis and Knockout. Because I don't want to have to work for my blooms.

And speaking of Jenny Shimizu (as a blonde? REALLY?) you might like this-http://www.towleroad.com/2009/11/activist-of-the-day-chris-pesto.html

I had one like that a couple of years ago. The prev prev owners had planted it, then the prev owners let trees grow up around it and shade it out. I noticed it after living here 4 years, dug it up, nurtured it over a winter and planted it in the front yard. It is stunning. (sniffle)

The rose is beautiful! I never have much luck with roses (or many plants, for that matter!) However, I am willing to bet the reason the rose did so well at it's first location was due to the disgruntled baseball fans. Urine is a great source of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous, much like commercial fertilizer!

I giggled at this, because African violets are the one plant I can actually grow. I'm horrible with plants--I neglect them, and over or under water, and I'm never sure which. But my African violet? Lives on where all others perish. I've had some qualified success with an aloe plant as well. And basil on the patio, but I think my neighbors were secretly caring for that one. I really should work on this...

just two days ago looked at a house to rent. some fool had planted a dog yard electric fence right smack on the middle of a runty little rose bush. it just might be a sign. plus; your story is a direct dharma for bloom where you are planted.

Roses are like Knitting. It can be as easy or as hard as you want. There are roses like garter stitch blankets in Cascade 220, or cable sweaters in Malabrigo, or dainty complicated lace and everything in between.

I've been baby-ing two century-old rose-bushes-that-my-philistine-sister-used-her-car-to-yank-out-by-their-roots all summer.

I know their backstory-- how the lady who planted them lost her mother when she was 8 and took care of her family and her mother's roses, and how, when she married, she planted cuttings from her mother's roses in her yard. All my sister cared about was that these 12 foot high mutant rose bushes were grabbing her 3 year old and holding her hostage every time they went to the car.

Now they're in my yard. Dead looking sticks... but in the middle of August, they suddenly sprouted leaves. I didn't get any roses this year, but I'm encouraged for next year.

My inlaws were AFrican violet royalty, hybridized over 200 varieties and owned and operated Tinari Greenhouses outside of Philadelphia for over 30 yrs. It is now owned by my brother in law. African violets, or st paulia ionantha can be tricky to grow, but even the violet people think rose people have it harder. Your rose is abso-bloomin-lutely "bee-you-tee-ful" as they say in Philadelphia.

"...living in Boston and working for starvation wages at a rather grim college for musicians..."

OK: I have to know. What grim college? Teaching what? I'm a musician from Boston, went thru NEC Prep; my father taught there & later headed the music dept at BU. (The rose story is wonderful, by the bye!)

That big ol' cabbage rose (lovely on forties upholstery) is a tough beeyotch, a Rosa ghettoensis if you will. Or even if you won't. This Rose will eat roaches and outlive you. This is the kind of rose that eats abandoned brownstones and wrestles the dreaded ailanthus to the ground.

As for the song, it's a good thing you wrote it out for me as I would never have deciphered her enunciation, no matter how much I love those rrrrrr's. It reminded me of several of my favorite hymns, no doubt written about the same time. (We did eventually persuade the church pianist to speed up.)

The more I learn about gardening, the less sorry I am about throwing out my copy of The Victory Gardener.

My father used to sing "the last rose of summer," almost always in the fall when we were tending the beds. My mother is an avid rose fancier-- mostly old-fashioned roses from some place in CT, and moss roses and the like. Thanks for the memories. May he rest in peace.

Beautiful post, rose, etc. Just discovered a blooming rose bush on my campus - little pink blossoms trying to eke out an existence before the snow flies. Of course, they are growing right across from Cyclotron, so who knows - they might be aliens waiting to invade.

Gorgeous rose! Well done for saving a street urchin plant... perhaps the horticultural version of Oliver Twist or some other classic of the genre? Just wait until the winter is over - she'll have quite a year. Please keep us posted on her survival.

As for Victory Garden - what say you about the new host? The Australian one - he's a bit more tanned and kind of Californian in his approach. Sometimes, I kind of miss the old-timeness of the older shows. But he is easy on the eyes and seems to know what he's talking about...

roses... with so little care they will reward you with the most beautiful blossoms. Might I suggest a little rose food scratched into the roots in the early spring and a good whacking (if you haven't already done so?)

I'd like to join the indestructible-African-violet-is-a-myth tendency. My record for killing one is three days, but that was the one I knocked off the windowsill into a sinkful of very hot washing-up-water...

Feed your rose banana peels and tea bags and it will reward you by growing into a huge and terrifying (but blooming) monster who will reward you by shredding the skin right off you when you wade in to prune it. No, I'm not bitter. There's a reason why the roses are so often still blooming long after the old homestead is gone.

What do you mean, Charlotte Church? She isn't still around, is she? I thought she had given up singing and was working in a grocery store somewhere, or was married and having children, or was making porn movies or something. There had better not be an new Charlotte Church CD out that I don't know about that I haven't been able to actively boycott.

True true... "Last Rose of Summer" and "A Bit of Earth" always go together for me on death and horticulture - "...she'll learn to love the tender roses, lilies fair, the iris tall, and then in fall her bit of earth will freeze and kill them all..."

film izle - film izle Really liked your site very great paylaşımlarınızda occasionally I write a nice comment favorite topics:) 724indir - dizi - Excellent site. Theme of a site is very nice. There are a number of us to our site. But you more beautiful and wonderful sites. Thanks you very much real admin and boss.. An excellent site is very great. Thanks you very much love real admin and boss.. Excellent site. esenyurt - Theme of a site is very nice. Thanks you very much real admin and boss.. A great site too. dah shares so great. Thank you very much. Done a wonderful site. Liked it very much. paylaşımlarınızda very great indeed. Simply amazing. good day .. dizi ve film - Thank you so much wonderful sharing...

film izle - film izleReally liked your site very great paylaşımlarınızda occasionally I write a nice comment favorite topics:) Excellent site. Theme of a site is very nice. There are a number of us to our site. But you more beautiful and wonderful sites. Thanks you very much real admin and boss.. An excellent site is very great. Thanks you very much love real admin and boss.. Excellent site. Theme of a site is very nice. Thanks you very much real admin and boss.. A great site too. dah shares so great. Thank you very much. Done a wonderful site. Liked it very much. paylaşımlarınızda very great indeed. Simply amazing. good day .. dizi ve film - Thank you so much wonderful sharing... advertise

dizi izle - Really liked your site very great paylaşımlarınızda occasionally I write a nice comment favorite topics:) Excellent site. Theme of a site is very nice. There are a number of us to our site. But you more beautiful and wonderful sites. Thanks you very much real admin and boss.. An excellent site is very great. Thanks you very much love real admin and boss.. Excellent site. Theme of a site is very nice. Thanks you very much real admin and boss.. A great site too. dah shares so great. Thank you very much. Done a wonderful site. Liked it very much. paylaşımlarınızda very great indeed. Simply amazing. good day .. Thank you so much wonderful sharing... cam balkon

Such sites, and comments are very nice to throw a two-site within the ideals film indir I 've got really liked them too, you hopefully enjoy. memurlar Thank you in advance for visiting: Dhave done a great profile article first contact site film özet is also very much, radyo dinle liked the color images in fast girebiliyorum everything. I 've got a couple of my article yazıorum for them programlama I really liked your site based on subject content in a pretty good article with content shared between each one looks goodI hope there will be more successful your site is very wonderful site. porna Thanks to the efforts of.like shares, are very beautiful.

became difficult to find such a beautiful site, rent a car script and at one until the nice old issues of the old issues I do not like too many great new, but this article is written very beautifully written that I wanted to sekspartner throw comments :)

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, who is a remarkable nim in the air, cannot take off from a level place aion gold, if it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is to shuffle about helplessly and aion gold, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash aion gold.

Copyright and Posting Notice

All original content of this blog, both words and images, is held in copyright by F. Habit. Use of any kind, in any medium, for any reason without express, prior written consent is prohibited.

Permission is not granted for the posting of any content from this site to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or any other Web site.

Please do not provide links to any product, service, organization or cause when leaving comments unless directly related to the topic of the post. Unsolicited advertising will be deleted and repeat offenders will be blocked.

When in doubt, please ask. I'm not mean, I'm just committed to preserving the quality of experience for my readers.